Howard Stern Pulled Back Into Court Fight as Ex-Assistant Appeals NDA Lawsuit Dismissal

Howard Stern’s former executive assistant is trying to revive her lawsuit against the radio host and his wife after a New York judge dismissed her challenge to disputed confidentiality agreements earlier this year.

Leslie Kuhn has appealed the July 29, 2026, ruling that threw out her case against Howard Stern, Beth Stern and their production companies. The former assistant is seeking to overturn the dismissal and continue her effort to invalidate confidentiality agreements she says she never knowingly signed.

The appeal extends a legal fight that had appeared to end when New York State Supreme Court Justice Melissa A. Crane dismissed Kuhn’s complaint in its entirety and directed the clerk to enter judgment for the Sterns and their companies.

At the center of the dispute is a 2025 nondisclosure agreement bearing Kuhn’s electronic signature. Kuhn argued that she did not sign the agreement and suggested someone may have accessed her work email account and attached her signature without her permission.

Crane rejected that argument, pointing to an email sent from Kuhn’s account with the message “Signed NDA attached” and the agreement included. The judge characterized Kuhn’s claim that her account may have been compromised as unsupported by evidence.

Kuhn is also challenging a separate confidentiality agreement from 2022 as she seeks the ability to speak publicly about her employment and termination.

Her original lawsuit, filed April 5, 2026, accused the Sterns of fostering a hostile work environment while she worked at their Southampton, New York, residence and challenged the validity of the confidentiality restrictions surrounding her employment.

Kuhn began working as office manager for SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show in September 2022 and became Stern’s executive assistant in January 2024, according to her complaint. She later moved into a role at the couple’s Southampton property, where she said her duties expanded to managing household staff, payroll, schedules and other operations.

She also assisted with Beth Stern’s cat rescue and fostering work at the home. Kuhn alleged that pressures surrounding the household operations and animal rescue efforts contributed to what she described as a hostile working environment.

Her employment ended in February 2026.

The lawsuit sought a declaration that the disputed confidentiality agreements were invalid or unenforceable, which would have allowed Kuhn to discuss her employment without the restrictions she claimed the documents imposed.

The Sterns disputed her allegations and moved to dismiss the case. Their attorneys characterized the lawsuit as an attempt to obtain money from Stern and argued that evidence showed Kuhn had agreed to the confidentiality restrictions.

The trial court ultimately dismissed the case before Kuhn’s broader allegations about her workplace were tested at trial.

That distinction remains important as the dispute moves into the appellate stage. Crane’s ruling rejected Kuhn’s legal challenge to the confidentiality agreements and dismissed the action, but the court did not conduct a trial to determine whether the workplace conditions Kuhn described actually occurred.

Kuhn’s appeal now asks a higher New York court to revisit the dismissal. If the ruling is upheld, the trial-court judgment will remain in place. If the appellate court reverses all or part of the decision, portions of the lawsuit could return to the lower court for further proceedings.